my life of baking, being a new mom (and losing the weight) and everything in between

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So almost a month ago, something crazy happened. I turned 30. Gulp. For anyone who has been following this blog, you know I was having a bit of an issue turning 30. I had made the conscious decision to not be in town for that birthday. I didn’t know where I wanted to be, but it was not here. About six months ago, I decided that I wanted to turn the big 3-0 in the Big Apple. It is and always has been one of my favorite cities. I wanted Brad to go with me, but he was in the middle of a crazy travel schedule, so he told me to bring my sister. Shh, she was my first choice anyway : )

I am a sucker for “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” on Food Network and began compiling a list of places and things that I wanted to eat for the next visit.

Boy did we ever! We visited both a grilled cheese and mac and cheese stand, had toasted marshmallow milkshakes at Stand, tried a really yummy Italian sub and some outstanding gelato at Eataly, ate pizza at Lombardi’s. And even ventured over to a Greek restaurant which was phenomenal! The donuts at Donut Plant were life changing and I’m not sure I can ever eat at a Dunkin Donuts again. After three separate attempts, we finally got a table at Serendipity 3 and the Frozen Hot Chocolate was what I had always imagined it would taste like. Of course if there was a cupcake place nearby, we had to try a couple. You know, for the sake of research. We hit up Magnolia a couple of times and tried a place called The Little Cupcake Shop. We didn’t have a bad meal/snack/sweet the entire time we were there.

Of course, we did other stuff besides eat. We went to Happy Hour with one of my high school friends. Had dessert with Courtney’s college roommate and her now fiancé and grabbed pizza with my college Graduate Hall Director. We went and saw “Newsies” on Broadway which was perfect. It is one of my favorite movies and the playwrights did it right. We burned up SoHo and Fifth Avenue and tried to boost the economy. We conquered the subways. We visited the 9/11 Memorial and went to the top of the Empire State Building (totally touristy, but we hadn’t done it before). We walked along the High Line in Chelsea and explored as many neighborhoods as we could. It was a perfect trip. Although it didn’t stop me from turning 30, it was the best way I can think of to celebrate a birthday.

Since then we have moved out of our house and moved in with my parents. We will be living here for 2 months and from now until we moved out I am taking a hiatus from this blog. I’ve started a completely different one (and trust me, I’ve got plenty of material), so visit me at www.60moredays.wordpress.com if you want to know about the adventures of moving back home in your 30s : ).

There are parts of my life that have dragged on and when I really think about it, it seems like I’ve been here an awful long time. Then I realize that soon I will be thirty years old. How did that happen so fast? Not a teen. Not a young adult. Or a twentysomething. Thirty. It is still tough for me to swallow. Most days I have to remind myself that I actually do have a real job and that this is my real house and I have a husband, and I did go through eight(ish) months of pregnancy and that really is my child. I still feel like it is just me and my sister playing “house” and that one day I’m going to wake up and realize that I am still 13, not THIRTY!!!

If I were to think back to when I was 13 or even 18 or 20 when I thought about these types of things and wondered where I would be when I turned 30 or where I wanted to be when I turned thirty, then I would be pretty pleased with myself. I’ve been happily married to my high school sweetheart for almost seven years. We still enjoy each other’s company, make each other laugh and I can’t imagine being with anyone else. We have a home that we both really like and we’re in the process of moving into our dream home (or as close to a dream home as you can get when you’re thirty). We have a child that we couldn’t live without and a dog that makes us happy. We both have jobs that we really love (95% of the time, which isn’t bad at all). We both even work for great companies in the area. We have been to a bunch of really cool places. We both still have our health and there really isn’t anything I would change. So I don’t know why I am having such a tough time turning 30.

Everyone keeps telling me that their 30s are the best. Eventually I will come to accept it. I keep reminding myself that any day on this side of the dirt is an accomplishment whether I’m 10 or 100. Until then, I’ll enjoy the last couple days of my 20s (and they really are numbered).

I am having a tough time turning 30 (more to come on this, I am sure). I have always had some issues with this age , so this isn’t something that just popped up out of the blue now that I’m thisclose to turning 30. So as with most things in my life approaching this “enormous” milestone, I am having some insecurities/doubts/crisies related to this blog.

When I started it, which let’s be honest, wasn’t all that long ago, I wanted it to be a funny yet cute way to express my feelings on being a mother, going through life events, baking, traveling and working out to lose baby weight. Continuing with the brutal honesty, there are millions upon millions of blogs that have to do with all of these things together or separately. Most of those blogs have millions and millions of faithful viewers. Although I love each and every one of you, I have devoted my career path to media and advertising, so one would think I would have a pretty good understanding on how to market myself and this blog.

With that being said, I need to take a long hard look at what I want to accomplish and what I want this blog to be about. I need to set myself apart from others that are out there or decide who I want my audience to be. Is this blog just for me or is it for everybody else? Do I want to devote my entire website to my new existence of being a mother (because there is no lack of those out there)? Should I be just sharing baking ideas and recipes (again, take a look at Pintrest, there are already a lot of them)? Will this blog be my opportunity to spread my writing wings? I love to write, I think I’m pretty good at it, but there are MUCH better writers out there. I can write about my weight loss journey, but right now there haven’t been very many milestones to celebrate. As of four weeks ago, I was still carrying some pounds of baby weight in addition to the 20 pounds I had put on the 4 years leading up to pregnancy. I can’t really write about running either. Even though I have almost 14 years of experience under my belt, I still don’t love running and a 3 mile run will still elicit as many moans, groans and procrastinating as a half marathon.

Maybe my biggest issue about turning 30 (and this blog) is that I am living a pretty normal life. I have a job, a house, a husband, a child and a dog. I have the same struggles as most everyone. There is never enough money, time or energy to accomplish everything I want to accomplish. There are always bills to pay and pounds to lose. Don’t get me wrong, I am immeasurably blessed in my life. I have a wonderful husband with a pretty compelling love story to back it up, a son who is perfect in every way (at least in my eyes), the sweetest dog ever and we live a very, very comfortable lifestyle. We go on trips. More trips than most people, but less than others. I have a job that I enjoy the majority of the time, but I still have gripes and grumps about it. I wish I had more time to hang out with Chase and to write and to workout and to bake and so far there are dreams and wishes that have fallen by the wayside, but that’s normal. I am so happy in my life and I have nothing to complain about (again with the brutal honesty).

So, excuse me while I have this bit of an identity crisis. If you see a bit of a blog makeover, now you know why and for all of you faithful readers out there, thank you for your loyalty and I hope you enjoy this glimpse into myself and my life as much as I enjoy writing about it.

There is one and only one saving grace to winter, and that my friends, is skiing. Well that and maybe Christmas too. But after the hangovers of Christmas, New Years and then Brad’s birthday (all a week apart), there is nothing but a vast expanse of cold, illness and untanned skin. Cue winter fun!

This January 8th was Brad’s 30th birthday. He had wanted to go skiing “locally” (i.e. within a 3 hour drive of the flat, flat tidewater area), but since it was kind of a big deal that he was hitting a big birthday and since my ever so enterprising sister had an ingenious idea to go west (complete with hotel recommendations), we decided to do it up! This would prove to be a very good idea because there has been no snow whatsoever practically east of the Mississippi and south of DC this winter. We had gone out to Colorado before, love the mountains, hated the two hour drive from the airport and had only heard great things about Utah, so we hit the skies on converged on Park City!

My sis’s high-school-boyfriend/close-friend-ever-since met us there as did Courtney and we had three amazing days on the slopes. Everyone out there was very apologetic about the lack of snow, and it was such a major issue that at least half of the trails at every resort were closed, but it was so much more than we have had or were expecting that we didn’t mind at all! Everyone got along so well, we loved the resorts out there and I think Brad had a pretty good 30th birthday. Of course, four days after we got home, Park City had an extra 3 FEET of snow on the ground.

I can’t complain much about this winter because even today it is supposed to be 60 with a weeklong forecast that includes only 50s and 60s, but hopefully my main man Punxsutawney Phil won’t see his shadow next week and we will be in for an early spring rather than pushing winter into April. Phew, are we there yet?